Lowly Loop Garage to Put On Its Big Boy Hotel Pants

Want to make a Chicago architecture fan look like a confused cocker spaniel? Tell them that there are more than a dozen buildings downtown that were designed to be extended vertically. We’ve been telling you this for years in this blog, but few people believed us until 300 East Randolph suddenly went from 33 to 57 stories in 2009.

Even Hotel (via Crain’s Chicago Business)

Another one of the city’s vertically aspirational buildings is the Government Center Parking Garage, built in 2005, at 195 North Clark Street. Surprising? Didn’t you ever wonder why you can’t park on the roof?

Now comes word from Crain’s Chicago Business that developer Paul Beitler is ready to cap that parking garage with a $40 million Even Hotel, designed by Lothan Van Hook DeStefano.

There aren’t many details available yet. The block is zoned under a 1986 Planned Development, so it’s possible that the hotel could be able to leapfrog some of the city’s usual paperwork and go up sooner rather than later.